How Should You Select a Website Testing Company?

(Very Quickly & Carefully)

The way you select the right website testing company can be the difference between disaster and delight. Why? Because website testing is different than “normal” software testing. Learn the difference and you will save time, money and embarrassment.

On the other hand, if you’re already convinced of the value of website testing, and are exploring your options, read on.

The biggest challenge you will face is the cost. For most website testing projects, there is just too much work to be done for too little budget. This is a very common situation and requires a smart, highly efficient website testing company, not one with the lowest hourly rates.

Why a (Good) Website Testing Company Has to be Really Smart

Here is a laundry list of issues we’ve seen as we’ve learned how to be the website testing company that you can count on.

There are too many different browsers, devices & operating systems to be able to test every one. How do you decide which ones to test?

The various technical platforms and design patterns used for websites are increasing in complexity and becoming more difficult to test adequately. Which parts need functional testing and which need browser testing?

The digital assets used to build websites (images, advertisements, links, content, videos, etc.) are rapidly increasing in complexity and becoming more difficult to test effectively each day. How do you effectively test something that comes from another site or server?

There’s never enough time to test everything. How do you decide what to test and how deeply to test it?

Tips for Website Testing Budget Control

Know Your Goals

“Test it all” is a bad goal but a goldmine for your website testing vendor. This can lead to a never-ending project, huge invoices and lot’s of disappointment. A better goal would be “confirm that the new functionality works, the old functionality didn’t break and that it renders properly on this list of browsers.”

Know Your Constraints

If you have a certain budget, then please share it with your website testing company. If you make them “guess” you won’t get their best work because they can’t build an effective strategy and plan to meet your goals within your specific budget. Likewise, if you have time constraints, let them know that as well. Yeah, this seems obvious but you’d be surprised.

Know Your Rhythm

Fresh defects are worth 10 to 100X more than stale defects. What is a fresh defect? One that was discovered within 24-48 hours of when the code was written. Why is that important?

The software developer still has a fresh memory of the work they did when work was completed and the defect was accidentally created. If we can get find and get that defect information back to them within 24 – 48 hours, the time they need to reset their thinking, remember their code and craft a solution is much shorter than if the developer has to wait longer to get feedback on their work. Schedule your testing work to follow feature deliver as soon as possible and your website testing project will go faster and smoother. Even better, pair a Test Engineer with one or two website developers and your website project speed and quality will astound you!

Testing a Website is Different than Testing Software

“Normal” software testing tends to focus on features and functions. Website testing needs to focus primarily on the details and mechanics of look and feel. Sure, there are features and functions on websites and they need to be tested! But, if you don’t pay a lot of close attention to the details of how look and feel are built, you’ll wind up with a website that works but probably looks bad on all but the most popular browsers and devices. A good portion of your visitors and customers will be greeted with a website that looks a little “funky”. Probably not what you want, right? Make sure your website testing company is more than a one-trick pony.

But, there is hope. You can get what you’re looking for if you ask a few great questions before you select your website testing company.

Why TESTCo Should Be Your Website Testing Company

At TESTCo, we’ve been studying, learning and delivering website testing services for over 10 years. We know the difference between software testing and website testing (because we do both really well). Put us to the test to see if we’re the right website testing company for your project. You can check out our other outsourced software testing services here.

Questions for Vetting Website Testing Companies

If you ask the questions below and get solid answers then you’ll probably be successful with your project. If the answers you get sound made-up then you should run in the other direction quickly!

“How do you determine and recommend the best browser/device/operating system testing matrix for our website testing?”

“We use X platform/theme for our website. What do you know about how this platform/theme renders the web pages and how will that impact your website testing plan?”

“We use a wide variety of off-site digital assets (adverts, videos, etc.). How will your website testing plan test these assets and how will you know if they pass?”

“Our design is responsive rather than adaptive and includes static elements with break points, nested content and vector images. How will that impact your website testing plan?”

“We use Company X to host our website platform. How will you work with them to test our website and determine how/when our platform reaches the maximum load it can serve?”

“We’re concerned about the speed and responsiveness of our website. How do you recommend determining if we have a problem there?”

Four Warning Signs that You’re About to Select
the Wrong Website Testing Company

If you happen to see some of these early warning signs, you should be on the alert that this may not be the website testing company you’re really looking for.

Very Few Questions Asked. Website testing covers a lot of ground – functional testing, usability testing, cross browser testing just to name a few of the most common areas. Your needs for your website are unique. The only way to understand your project and your needs is to ask a lot of questions. You want detailed and specific help for your unique project, right?

A Boilerplate Proposal. You’ve seen this before. You’re given a slick PPT and the first 15 pages are boilerplate bragging about the website testing company. Your information, the data you need to make a smart decision about your project, is plugged into more boilerplate in the last two or three pages. Isn’t this proposal supposed to be about your project?

No Specific Actions or Plan to Achieve Your Goal. If you knew how to do a website testing project, you’d already have it done, right? You haven’t so you’re depending on an expert to help you build a plan to achieve your website testing and business goals. Your proposal should have a detailed plan and explanation of how they will help you achieve your goal. If this is missing, what are you really paying for?

Low Rates but Uncertain Timeline. Low rates don’t always equal low costs. Low rates can indicate weak engineering talent or uncertain project management. The real cost of your website testing project is calculated as the hourly rate times the project duration. A low rate and long or uncertain project timeline is a warning sign that your project may not be successful or delivered within budget.

These warning signs don’t always indicate or predict failure. But, if you see two or more of them in your search for a website testing company, you might want to pause and do a little more research to prevent a terrible project or worse, a failure.

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